Scholarships

Helping a student be successful in college is one of the best gifts a person can give. Scholarships are financial awards granted to deserving students to ease the financial burden and help them achieve their educational goals.

Students who receive a scholarship will often tell you that while the financial assistance was important, the fact that someone believed and invested in them with a scholarship affirmed their determination to succeed in completing their college education.

"Scholarships open the door to college give students hope and teach the value and rewards of hard work and persistence". Ron Mitchell, MiraCosta College Foundation, Board President

How to fund a scholarship

Scholarship donors can create and/or contribute to a scholarship in a wide variety of ways. These are the most common:

Click on the "Donate Now" button and make a gift using our secure on-line donation option.

Write a check to the MiraCosta College Foundation and mail it to: MiraCosta College Foundation, MS #7, 1 Barnard Drive, Oceanside, CA 92056. Please write in the memo line how you would like to designate your gift.

Transfer appreciated stock to the MiraCosta College Foundation. This carries with it significant tax advantages. For more information on this, please contact Linda Fogerson, Executive Director, MiraCosta College Foundation at 760.795.6775 or email at lfogerson@miracosta.edu.

Fundraise among your family and friends for a particular scholarship. The foundation will track the individuals who make gifts to the fund and let your who know who has participated in the effort.

Establish a new annual scholarship fund

You can establish a one-time or annually renewable scholarship fund with a gift of at least $500. You may renew the fund each year with an additional gift. This scholarship fund can carry your name, the name of a loved one or the name of an organization. Donors receive letters from their scholarship recipient.

Things to consider: When establishing a new scholarship fund it is important to remember to keep your scholarship as broad as possible, limiting your criteria to one or two, at the most, three characteristics. Common criteria include financial need and minimum GPA.

Establish an endowed scholarship

You may set up a scholarship endowment with a gift of at least $15,000. The principal will be invested in perpetuity. After the first year in which your scholarship fund has been invested, most of interest earned from the fund will be used to fund a scholarship. Some of the interest earned will be reinvested. Over the years, the market value of your scholarship endowment will grow providing permanent and increased funding for student scholarships. Donors receive letters from their scholarship recipients.

Existing named annual or endowed scholarships

We currently have more than 100 different annual and endowed scholarship funds to which you may donate. If you would like to contribute to an existing fund, click on "Donate Now". If you can't find the fund to which you would like to donate, use the "other" field to specify the fund.

General scholarship fund

Make a gift of any amount and assist a student this year. Scholarships are awarded each spring and fall semester as part of the scholarship program developed and administered by MiraCosta College. This fund was able to award almost $12,000 in scholarships this past school year.

MiraCosta Scholarship Endowment

Your gift to the Scholarship Endowment will continue to grow and benefit students every year. An endowment is a fund established in perpetuity, with the principal invested and managed by the Foundation and the interest earned providing a predictable source of revenue to fund scholarships far into the future. Because many individuals make relatively small gifts to this fund it has grown significantly over time.